EPA Employees Spend $15k of Government Money on Gym Memberships

According to an agency audit, employees at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) used their government purchase cards to spend $14,985 on fitness memberships.

Washington Free Beacon writes,

With the goal of assessing the risk of illegal, improper, and erroneous purchases made on the EPA’s purchase card, the auditors evaluated 18 transactions totaling $48,345 and found that none of them complied with any of the internal controls that were tested.

Some of these controls require that officials give approval, that records be properly placed in the vendor’s banking system, and that transactions be reviewed by the card holder within 10 days of posting.

The auditors found that 2 of the 18 transactions, totaling $14,985, were for fitness memberships. Three other transactions were made to vendors who were considered high risk, which requires further documentation for review.

Additionally, auditors found that the agency should have policies regarding how many purchase cards are issued and what are the credit limits for cardholders.

With only 18 transactions evaluated, there’s no telling how many other transactions did not comply with agency spending controls.

The EPA has had problems before with oversight of their purchase-card programs. In 2014, an inspector general report noted that more than half of $150K in expenditures evaluated was “prohibited, improper, or erroneous.”